August 9th, 2009 - A brisk ride through the hectic traffic of Beijing from the 4th ring to a block near the temple of heaven was to be the starting point of the 29th edition of the Olympic road cycling event. Tom Lanhove, the organizer of the cyclosport invited everyone in the group to join but come 9:30am there were only three (Tom, Thomas, and me). Non the less, smaller group = mobility.
At 10:45 am we found a corner about 1km from the start with a good view of the race so we figured this is probably as good as it will get witht he riders slowing a bit for the turn. Seconds before the peloton's arrival, a entourage of police, buses, vans, cars drove past us in a fast pace.
Luxenburg support car with the bikes of Andy, Frank Schleck and Kim Kirchen.
spectators....
Bunch of kids lined up a few meters behind the tight Chinese security.
Jens voigt riding way behind the pack... probably reserving his lungs in the smog of the city.
The main pack
Shimano sponsor cars with shimano 7900 components
At 10:45 am we found a corner about 1km from the start with a good view of the race so we figured this is probably as good as it will get witht he riders slowing a bit for the turn. Seconds before the peloton's arrival, a entourage of police, buses, vans, cars drove past us in a fast pace.
Luxenburg support car with the bikes of Andy, Frank Schleck and Kim Kirchen.
spectators....
Bunch of kids lined up a few meters behind the tight Chinese security.
Jens voigt riding way behind the pack... probably reserving his lungs in the smog of the city.
The main pack
Shimano sponsor cars with shimano 7900 components
Pack being led out of the start by the defending gold medalist of 2004 Athens game Paolo Bettini. Behind Paolo, the all star Spanish cycling team including kid Contador (2007 TDF, 2008 Giro winnder) and Alexandro Valverde team mate to eventual winner of the day Samuel Sanchez.
